


Halo [cancelled]

by Homeo (Wherefore_art_thou_Homeo)



Series: Halo [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 18:56:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9338555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wherefore_art_thou_Homeo/pseuds/Homeo
Summary: A decade ago, a plague swept the planet, killing everyone but the very young and very old. Simultaneously, a variety of terrifying creatures appeared, and began laying waste to those few that remained. Nobody knows where they came from or why; only that they must fight or die.Among the survivors, a few people with superhuman powers exist. They are mostly outcasts, forced to live on their own, due to the destructive nature of many of their abilities.Noya and Ryu are among this number of outcast superhumans, and for the past year have been fighting and surviving on their own very well, and even managing to have a good time with it - but one day, they get in a fight much, much bigger than they are, and their future begins to look very uncertain.[ 3/11/18: this fic is incomplete and is very unlikely to become complete. ]





	

Noya woke up first – before the sun, as usual. He rolled over in his sleeping bag and squinted through the dark at Ryu.

He was still asleep, with his back to Noya. Noya could faintly hear his quiet, peaceful breathing.

Noya pulled one hand out of his sleeping bag and rubbed his fingers together. A blue spark flickered briefly in the darkness.

He grinned.

He rolled over and pulled a lightbulb from the front pocket of his backpack, resting beside him. When he wrapped his fingers around the metal base, the bulb flickered for a moment – and with some concentration, he lit it up steady.

“Ryu,” he said, waving the bulb near him. “Time to get up.”

Ryu mumbled and swatted at the light. Noya moved it closer to his face.

“Daytime,” Noya said. “We gotta get moving.”

Ryu groaned, but sat up. Noya let the lightbulb go out and tucked it back into his bag.

“What do you mean, ‘daytime’?” Ryu muttered. “It’s still completely dark out.”

“I’m awake, so it’s day,” Noya said. “It’s a little light. See?”

Ryu scoffed. “A very little,” he said. He stretched his arms up in the air.

Through the window of the shed they’d spent the night in, the faintest trace of blue light was beginning to trickle in. Noya had himself well trained to wake up at the first sign of light, but Ryu usually needed more convincing.

Ryu’s head drooped. Noya picked the light bulb up again and flickered it a few more times, earning an irritated groan from Ryu.

“All right, all right,” he grumbled. “I’m up.”

Noya grinned and wriggled out of his sleeping bag.

“So,” He said. “How far do you think we’ll get today?”

Ryu yawned. “Well… since we’re getting up at the asscrack of dawn,” he said, “and this is a suburb… We’ll probably get to the next city by tonight.”

“Nice!” Noya bounced a little bit. “C’mon – get up, let’s go!”

He hopped to his feet and hauled Ryu up by the hand. Ryu staggered and fell heavily against him, almost knocking him over. Noya punched his arm.

“Use your legs,” Noya said.

“No.”

But Ryu quickly regained use of his legs when Noya ducked out from under him. He sighed heavily and hung his head, resigned.

“Okay,” he said. “Breakfast and we’ll pack up.”

Noya was already digging into his bag again. His hand closed around a half-empty box of Pop-Tarts, which he pulled out.

“We should see if this house has a toaster,” he said. “I hate eating these things raw.”

“All right,” Ryu replied. “Let’s just pack up now, then. We could do with some water, too – hopefully they got some.”

Noya closed his bag and rolled up his sleeping bag. He strapped it to the top of his backpack and slung it over his shoulders. He waited a few seconds for Ryu to finish packing too, and then led the way out of the shed.

The neighborhood they’d stopped in this time had probably once been a very banal, normal place to live, Noya thought. All the houses were built the same way; even with slightly differing paint jobs, they all looked the same. The only thing that set theirs apart was the shed they’d slept in; very unusual for this kind of place. There was a tiny backyard that had probably once housed a hopeful garden patch, and the shed held all the tools for its maintenance; far too many for the size of the place. It was a nice shed, nothing like the garages they’d had to sleep in sometimes, where they’d wake up with headaches from the gasoline fumes and Noya had to be careful not to spark something by accident.

Much safer. Smelled better. Sheds were rare but welcome. This place had both – a shed and a garage, one on either side of the house. The people who lived here must have had money, taking up so much space.

The two of them walked across the yard to the crumbling main house. What had once been an artistic arrangement of ivy had by now consumed the entire north side of the place. A few windows were broken. The garage door and the car was gone – pretty standard for a neighborhood like this. They walked into the garage. Noya counted four bikes lined up along the back wall, one of which had training wheels on it.

He wondered where that kid was now.

Ryu walked to the interior door and rattled the knob. “Locked,” he said. “These people actually locked the door on their way out? Who does that?”

“People who think they’re coming back, I guess,” Noya said.

“Morons,” Ryu muttered, kicking the door. “Didn’t they know people like us were gonna need their stuff one day?”

“Let’s just try a window,” Noya said. “Those are highly breakable. Good entry points.”

“Yeah,” Ryu smiled at him. “Let’s go for that.”

They left the garage and climbed the front steps. Ryu picked up a rock, handed it to Noya, and grinned.

“Ready for some good old-fashioned vandalism?” Ryu asked.

Noya readied his rock and closed one eye.

As dead as this place was, he still couldn’t help feeling weird about breaking into houses. Noya had grown up – for a few years, anyway; not that he could remember much – in a neighborhood and house very much like this one. He knew that everyone who lived here was either dead or gone, but it still felt a bit wrong to go around breaking windows and looting kitchens.

Ryu had no such qualms. He’d grown up on city streets. Sometimes he said that living was safer now than back then. “A lot more fun, definitely,” he always said.

Ryu gestured at the glass in front of them – the only fully intact window on this side of the house.

“Wanna do the honors?” Ryu asked.

“Stand back,” Noya replied.

He heaved the rock as hard as he could at the window. Broken glass sprayed into the room on the other side. The rock collided with an interior wall with a satisfying _clunk._

“Nice one,” Ryu said, surveying the damage. Noya had knocked out a full panel of glass from the window, almost perfectly cleanly. “You left half for me.”

“Enjoy it,” Noya grinned, taking a step back.

Ryu did. He threw his rock hard enough that he put a hole in the wall.

“Nice!” he crowed. “Okay. Cool.”

He pulled out one of the two baseball bats strapped to his pack and scraped away as much of the remaining glass as he could.

“Careful climbing in,” he told Noya, who generally wasn’t.

Noya wiggled his way through the window and set his feet down on the floor. He squinted through the dark.

“Light bulb,” Ryu called. “Lemme see you.”

Noya stuck his tongue out and took the light bulb out of his pocket again. He lit it and looked around.

The place was pretty intact. Nobody else had been here since its owners had left, it looked like. All the food was probably bad, but there was bound to be water somewhere.

Ryu knocked on the front door and shook the doorknob. “Hey,” he called out. “Come on.”

Noya made his way over and unlocked the door. Ryu quickly stepped inside and shut it behind him.

“This place was locked up tight,” Noya murmured to him. “I wasn’t in danger.”

“I know,” Ryu muttered. “I know.”

Noya took his hand and squeezed it. Ryu returned the squeeze and the two of them walked further into the house.

It smelled musty in here. Everything was damp. As Noya’s light drew along the floor, bugs and rodents scurried away from them.

“Eugh,” Ryu grunted. He turned his head and smiled at Noya. “You ever eaten a rat?”

“Ew, no.”

“Not advised.”

“You’ve eaten a rat?”

“Exactly once. Would not recommend.”

“When was this?”

“Long before I discovered the joys of American import food,” Ryu said lightly. “Shit doesn’t expire.”

They reached a doorway. Noya squinted through it and nodded.

“Kitchen,” he said.

“Toaster oven!” Ryu added, pointing excitedly at a glint of metal.

“Yesssss,” Noya hissed.

Noya let go of Ryu’s hand and walked over to the toaster oven. He picked it up, shook it out to make sure nothing was living in it – nothing was – and located its plug.

He looked back to Ryu. “Moment of truth,” he said.

Ryu pressed his palms together and bowed his head.

Noya stuck the plug into his nose and pushed the lever.

The element inside the oven started to glow. The two of them shouted in excitement.

“Excellent,” Ryu said. He pulled out two packets of Pop-Tarts and put them in the oven. “Hot breakfast today.”

Noya grinned, plug still up his nose. It was good to have hot food every now and then – especially hot food that didn’t taste like smoke, the way it did when they cooked it with a campfire. It would be nice if they could carry a toaster oven around with them, but it was just too much weight. They just had to count on being lucky sometimes.

Ryu set the timer and leaned back against the counter. He looked up at Noya and laughed. “You don’t have to plug it into your nose, do you?” he asked.

“Nah,” Noya replied.

There was a pause. Ryu snorted.

“Any excuse to shove something up your nose, huh?”

“It leaves my hands free,” Noya said defensively.

“For what?”

“For… rubbing the top of your lovely fuzzy head,” Noya replied. He reached over and did so. Ryu tipped his head closer and chuckled.

“Not so fuzzy anymore,” he said. “It’s getting long.”

“Will you let me shave it again?”

“As long as you don’t try to scalp me this time.”

“I nicked you and I apologized for it. Instantly and repeatedly.”

“An attempt on my life was made.”

“Whatever, man.”

The kitchen started to smell like strawberries in addition to the old-house smell. It stirred up a half-forgotten memory in the back of Noya’s mind. He probably hadn’t eaten these for breakfast when he was a kid, but maybe something similar. It would have been a very long time ago.

Ryu inhaled deeply and sighed. “Smells good,” he breathed.

Noya nodded. “The joys of American food,” he said.

“Better than rats.”

“Stop talking about eating rats.”

“No.”

The toaster oven dinged. Noya pulled the plug out of his nose and Ryu opened the little glass door. The Pop-Tarts slid out. The two of them picked them up with their bare hands and dug in. It burned their fingers a little and their mouths a lot, but it tasted good enough right then that they didn’t care.

They ate fast and drank a little of their water, and then it was time to shake the place down. Ryu started going through the kitchen cupboards for anything that might still be edible and Noya started looking for water. The tap didn’t work – they never did, but he tried anyway – but he found a few bottles in the fridge. He grimaced – it was going to taste like a decade of plastic. Better than nothing. It had been a long time since they’d come across any natural water source. They’d have to deal for now.

Noya started on the bathroom next, stuffing his backpack with whatever would fit. He hadn’t brushed his teeth in days – not with toothpaste, anyway. He grabbed all the toiletries he could and rejoined Ryu in the kitchen.

Ryu had found – as expected – a decent supply of canned food in the cupboards. He smiled at Noya when he came back in.

“Got everything you need?” Ryu asked.

“All sorts of stuff to make us smell less awful than usual,” Noya replied. “How’s the food situation? I can still carry a bit more.”

“Pretty solid – a bunch of it looks fine – some of it might be pretty dicey, though,” he said. “Might not be good anymore.”

“Well… least-dicey stuff first, you know the drill,” Noya said.

Ryu nodded and started shoving as many cans as he could into his bag. Noya grabbed the rest.

“No tuna this time, eh?” Ryu said.

Noya snorted. They could laugh about it now, but the Week of Spoiled Tuna, as they called it, had been pretty bleak at the time. They’d stocked up on protein just before a long hike between cities, only to find that most of it was expired – really, _really_ expired. They’d gotten enough other stuff that they weren’t in any real danger of starving, but it had been a sobering reminder to be more careful.

They closed up their bags and got ready to leave. Ryu led the way. Noya felt for his hands and held it to keep from losing him in the dark. He smiled to himself when Ryu squeezed his fingers. They exited the house, walked down the driveway, and started down the street again, still holding hands.

They walked for a while without saying anything. Noya swung their clasped hands, looking at the houses they passed, whistling. They were all mostly or entirely intact, somehow. This looked like it had once been a neighborhood with kids; Noya wasn’t sure how it wasn’t completely picked over. Whatever the case, they’d have to remember this place to come back to when it came time to restock.

Ryu flicked his wrist. Noya glanced up at him and stopped whistling. It wasn’t a particularly dangerous area, from what they could tell, but Ryu was a little paranoid about making noise. Not without reason, of course. Noya just forgot sometimes.

“Hey, uh,” Ryu said suddenly, after a few moments of silence.

“Yeah?”

Ryu was looking stiffly ahead, brow furrowed. He didn’t say anything for another moment. Noya waited.

“Sorry for… worrying so much,” he finally mumbled. “You can look out for yourself just fine and I know that… I shouldn’t… I know I shouldn’t…”

He sighed. “I just can’t help it, you know?”

Noya squeezed his hand.

Given what he’d been through – of course.

“Totally understandable,” Noya replied quietly. “I got it. Don’t worry. I mean. Don’t worry that you’re worrying too much. I don’t mind the worrying. About me.”

He felt Ryu relax a little, even give a quiet laugh.

“I’ll try not to make you worry so much,” Noya said. “Hey.”

He stopped walking, tugging Ryu to a stop along with him. He pulled him close and gave him a quick kiss.

They rested their foreheads together. Ryu closed his eyes and smiled.

“I’ll try not to be such an idiot,” he said.

“It’s not stupid to worry,” Noya assured him. “Especially not for you.”

They broke apart – except for their hands – and kept going. Noya hummed instead of whistling. Eventually, Ryu started humming along.

\- - -

Just as Ryu had predicted, they reached the next big city by the time the sun went down. Noya almost bounced up and down with excitement.

“Oh man,” he said, voice quivering with excitement. “This place is awesome!”

“You say that about every place we go,” Ryu laughed.

“Yeah, but –” Noya let go of his hand, ran ahead a few steps, and gestured wildly around them with both arms and huge eyes. “Look at this place! It’s huge! And _people_ built it!”

Ryu laughed. Noya had been a suburb kid, back when that was relevant. He was easily impressed by all sorts of things Ryu didn’t think twice about. It made Ryu happy to see.

Noya led the way as they went on. He took turns seemingly at random, walking towards whatever seemed most interesting. Ryu kept track of which way they were going, because if there was one thing Noya didn’t have, it was a sense of direction.

Cities still felt suffocating to Ryu. All the buildings, tall enough and close enough that they nearly blocked out the sky, limiting his vision – it was an instinct carried over from his time as a street kid. Saeko had always taught him to keep an eye on his surroundings, but it was difficult when everything was all crammed together like this.

But Noya loved them and they were good places to live now. So they went from city to city, choosing a place to live and staying there until the nearby resources ran low. Then they’d just hop to another one – and so on, and so on. When they’d started out, Ryu had known the names of the cities they stayed in, but now they were getting into places he’d never heard of. Neither of them knew many kanji, and reading English off of the signs was another issue entirely – so they couldn’t find out what the cities were called, either. This one was no exception.

Being in a completely unfamiliar place didn’t help Ryu’s nerves. Before long, Noya noticed.

He dropped back to Ryu’s side, took his hand, and gave it a squeeze. Ryu took one look at him – at that grinning, angular little face – and couldn’t keep from grinning himself.

“Nervous?” Noya asked gently.

“Little,” he admitted.

Noya let go of him, pulled the light bulb out of his pocket again, and lit it up. It flickered a little before he managed to hold it steady. He’d only recently managed to control his ability enough to light the bulbs up without causing them to explode. He’d worked hard at it; he still had little cuts on his hands from the broken glass.

“Let’s find a place to stay the night, huh?” Noya said. “There’s probably a hotel nearby.”

“Hotels every few feet in places like this,” Ryu replied. “You up for powering the door locks?”

“Totally,” Noya nodded. “Nothing to it.”

Within just a few minutes, they arrived at their first hotel. The front doors were sliding glass and somehow unbroken. Ryu and Noya looked at each other and nodded. Glass wasn’t strong, but it made it easy to tell when a place had been broken into before them.

Noya walked over to the doors and rested his palms flat against the metal frame. With a dull creaking an whirring of gears, the doors slid open. Noya turned back to Ryu and grinned.

“After you,” he said, bowing.

Ryu nodded in acknowledgment and led the way inside. Noya followed close behind.

Even as they moved further inside, the place looked relatively untouched. This was odd, but not unheard of; a lot of places got hit so fast that there wasn’t time for looting – and certainly not for checking into a hotel. They must be close to an epicenter. The thought made Ryu shiver.

The lobby was musty and there was a lot of moss on the carpet. Ryu didn’t want to know what was probably lurking under it.

“Where do we want to go?” Ryu asked. “Which floor?”

Noya thought for a moment, twisting his mouth and cocking his head. “Mmm… top floor,” he said decisively.

“Excellent choice,” Ryu nodded. He offered Noya his arm – and Noya looped his around it. “To the top floor we go.”

They walked across the lobby towards the stairs. Ryu pulled the door open for them and took a step inside – but a sudden waft of an all-too-familiar stench stopped them in their tracks.

Ryu looked back at Noya to find him looking a bit pale. He let the door swing shut again.

“Maybe not this time,” Noya breathed.

“No,” Ryu said. “No… not this time.”

They turned and walked along the ground-floor hallway, significantly more wary than before. Noya’s hand clawed into Ryu’s arm a bit.

The smell was the first tip-off.  
Noya held the light bulb up high, casting a solid light into the increasing dimness before them. There was something on the floor ahead – something big.

Ryu shoved Noya behind him, heart in his throat – but nothing was telling him to move. No instinct came forward and told him what to do. All the same…

“What is it?” Noya breathed. He stepped out from behind Ryu. “It’s… dead, isn’t it?”

“Please just stay behind me until we can say for sure,” Ryu pleaded with him.

Together, they crept down the hallway. Ryu kept his hands up at the ready, shivering all over.

It wasn’t the biggest one he’d ever seen, but in this context it seemed huge. It was quadripedal, with its four long limbs curled up close to its hollow belly. It filled the hallway, haunches and head pressed against opposite walls. Its face – what Ryu could see of it – looked a bit like a lizard’s, with smooth gray skin and a flat nose. Its fangs were huge – probably three inches long – and jutted out like tusks. Its black blood was splattered on the walls, staining like ink. Ryu noticed splashes of it on the carpet, all the way to where they stood.

But the worst part was the smell of it.

The stench of the blood was piercing, something like ammonia, and still strong. Ryu’s heart raced. The thing was dead, certainly – probably – but it hadn’t been for long, if it was.

Recently dead. Something had killed it.

A moment later, Noya spoke.

“We’ll just stay overnight,” he breathed. “We’ll leave this city tomorrow. Fast.”

“Yeah,” Ryu said. “Yeah…”

Noya tugged his arm. “Hey,” he said. “Stay with me. You’re good. We’re safe.”

Ryu looked down at him and received a reassuring smile. He let Noya lead him by the hand back the way they’d come, to the room closest to the front lobby. He did his best to calm down as they went.

Noya let go of his hand and examined the door lock. He grinned.

“Easy,” he said.

He pressed his palm to the lock and concentrated. The lock beeped, and then there was a fizzing sound and the door unbolted.

“If there’s one thing I can do, it’s short the shit out of things,” Noya said proudly. He pushed the door open and used the light bulb to look inside. Ryu followed him.

Untouched for years. It must have been vacant since the outbreaks. The bed was made and the windows were in one piece. The ammonia smell from the hall was much weaker here.

Noya rushed over to the bed and leaped onto it, landing splayed-out, face-down, right in the middle. He laid there for a moment and then rolled over.

“Smells like dust,” he said. “Comfy, though. Siddown.”

Ryu joined him on the bed, flopping down beside him.

Noya smiled and poked his nose.

“Let’s just go to sleep, okay?” he said gently. “You look beat.”

Ryu was. New cities always fried his nerves fast. The sun was barely down, but he felt ready to sleep until well after it came back up.

He sat up and took his backpack off, setting it down beside the bed. Noya did the same, and then they laid down, side by side, close together. Noya pulled Ryu close, pressing Ryu’s head to his chest. He kissed Ryu’s hair.

“Sleep well,” Noya yawned. “See ya in the morning.”

Ryu closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Noya. Close together like this, warmed by Noya’s body heat, it didn’t take long for Ryu to fall asleep.

\- - -

Noya lay awake much longer.

Once Ryu’s breathing slowed down and he was sure he was asleep, Noya wriggled out of his arms and rolled out of the bed. Ryu stirred a little, but didn’t wake. Noya watched him for a while, the hurried away.

He walked over to the window and looked out. There wasn’t much of a view from here – the room looked out onto an alleyway – but he could still see a little bit of the sky, even a sliver of moon.

Noya was having a hard time sleeping lately. He had more on his mind than he liked to admit. He tried not to make a big deal out of it, for Ryu’s sake, but when he was alone with his thoughts like this, it was hard.

He leaned against the window sill. He pressed his forehead into the glass and closed his eyes.

He’d been traveling with Ryu for more than a year now. It had been nearly two since he’d left the compound – since he’d left her – but it still felt like just yesterday that he’d snuck out of their room, leaving nothing, not even a note, and disappeared into the night.

For a while, he’d thought the sick feeling that filled his stomach was loneliness; he thought he was missing her, and nothing else. He thought he’d done the right thing; a hard thing, but the right thing, the best thing for both of them. As time had gone on, however, he realized he was wrong, and the feeling was guilt, too.

He had done something wrong. He had been an idiot. He’d done something unforgivable the night he left her, and there was nothing he could do to fix it. There was no going back to that compound, no way to apologize to her.

He would just have to live with it.

He hadn’t told Ryu much about her. He was careful about what he said. He’d only mentioned her a few times, in passing. Ryu had enough going on himself that Noya couldn’t justify burdening him further with something neither of them could do anything to help. All Ryu knew about Asahi was her name, the fact that Noya loved her, and that she wasn’t dead.

Noya hoped to hell she wasn’t dead.

He hadn’t told Ryu why he’d left her, but it was probably very clear that Noya thought it was the biggest mistake he’d ever made in his life.

Noya sighed and straightened back up. He looked over at Ryu, sleeping soundly in the middle of the bed. He looked for a good long time.

He didn’t regret meeting Ryu. He could never regret Ryu. But if his impulsive ass had just stayed put for a little longer, if he’d just talked to her, if he’d only fucking _tried…_

Noya covered his face, pinched the bridge of his nose, and took a few deep breaths, getting up the nerve to lie back down. He did, eventually.

He covered himself up and curled close to Ryu, pressed his eyes closed, and waited.

As was usual on nights like this, it took him hours more to fall asleep.

\- - -

Ryu woke up first the next morning. Noya was sound asleep beside him, mouth open, drooling a little. Ryu smirked; he always seemed so relaxed when he was asleep. He wouldn’t wake him up just yet – he didn’t want to ruin it for him.

Besides, he wanted to check out that thing in the hallway again, and there was no way Noya would let him get close.

He carefully pulled free of Noya’s arms and walked to the door as quietly as he could. He looked back before he left, to make sure Noya hadn’t been disturbed. He opened the door and shoved a shoe in the gap to keep it open. Confident that Noya was still sound asleep, Ryu turned to face the hall.

Only a bit of light reached far enough to illuminate the dead creature on the floor. Ryu squinted at it, then closed his eyes.

He had his knife on him, just in case, but his instincts gave him no directions; the thing was definitely dead.

Almost definitely. Ryu didn’t like to think in guarantees.

Ryu pulled his knife from its sheath and began moving forward. His hand, tightly clenched on the handle, was sweaty and trembling; his mouth was very dry.

His eyes adjusted to the semidarkenss quickly. He could see the thing’s permanently-snarling face with almost perfect clarity.

His heartbeat was strong enough that he couldn’t hold still. He readied his knife as he drew closer.

He’d never seen one come back from the dead before, but he wouldn’t put it past them. Some of them were smart; he’d seen them fake injuries before, apparently to lure people in. This one was, of course, undeniably hurt, and badly so – but if it had survived its injury, and was just lying in wait for some idiot like him or Noya to come along…

He should stop freaking out. He couldn’t be right in worrying.

He tried to reason with himself, but as usual, it didn’t work. He had to be sure.

Ryu reached the thing – finally – and knelt down near its head. The ammonia stench of its blood was almost overwhelming. He coughed and pulled the collar of his shirt up over his nose. He held his knife over the top of its head, poised to stab if it moved. Then he started to look it over.

Spindly, emaciated, dark gray skin like concrete, shaped like a long humanoid but walking on four legs – not an unusual-looking one, that was for sure; it was nothing he hadn’t seen before. Ryu made up names for each kind of creature he found, and this one fit into the category he called ‘runners’. They were light and could get going very fast when they wanted to. Scary, but they couldn’t easily find you if you hid from them. Not as bad as leapers or trackers. Not nearly as bad as slicers. Or rogues.

All the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He liked to avoid thinking about those guys when he could. He focused back on the dead runner before him.

Now that he looked at it closer, he could see that its midsection was slit open – lengthwise – and that its inky organs had sloughed out. It looked like an oil slick, oozing onto the carpeted floor.

Ryu clenched his jaw. Even when it was one of these things, the sight of gore made him nauseous.

He was now satisfied that the thing was dead. It wasn’t breathing, wasn’t moving, wasn’t even twitching. It had probably been dead before they even got here. He put his knife away and stood up again.

“Ryu?” Noya’s voice called gently, from a bit behind him.

Even as softly as Noya had spoken, Ryu still started and whirled around. Noya held his palms up and looked up at him, eyes wide, trying to calm him down.

Ryu relaxed as he approached. He closed his eyes and Noya wrapped him in a hug.

“It’s dead,” Noya murmured to him. “It’s dead.”

Ryu nodded. “Yeah,” he breathed. “Yeah, I know.”

Noya patted him. “Let’s pack up and head out,” he said, pulling away. “Put this city behind us. Let’s go west this time – we haven’t gone west in a while.”

Ryu opened his eyes and found him smiling. He smiled back as best he could.

“We haven’t, have we?” he said. “We’re gonna hit ocean if we keep going this way much longer, huh?”

Noya took his hand and pulled him back into the room. They had a quick canned-food breakfast and before long they were ready to set out again. Ryu’s nerves had calmed somewhat by the time they left the hotel, but he was still on edge. It had been a long time since they’d encountered one of the creatures, living or dead. And not only that – the way this one had been killed, with a long slice in its abdomen, suggested that they weren’t alone in this city. If it had been a rogue, there would be a lot more than just the one cut. Rogues brutalized their prey; this wound had probably been inflicted by a fellow human.

“Side streets out of here, you think?” Noya asked as they stepped outside. “Probably safer that way, right?”

They couln’t know who might be watching them. Ryu nodded. He’d run into a few roving bands of people before. They made him more nervous than some of the monsters.

Noya led the way through the narrow alleys. Ryu told him where to go, but kept an eye on their backs. Where there was a dead creature, there was likely many more alive and well somewhere close by. His senses wouldn’t let him relax, not with such low visibility.

Noya started humming again. Ryu squeezed his hand and received a squeeze in return.

It was a good reminder. Ryu closed his eyes and did his best to calm down. The two of them together were powerful. They’d fought together before, and won every time, escaping with nothing worse than scratches.

They could handle anything.

\- - -

Noya could feel how tense Ryu was. He did what he could to fix it, but he knew there wasn’t much he could do. Ryu’s ability was simultaneously very helpful and highly detrimental; when they had to fight something, he always knew exactly what to do, but it also put him on high alert in any even vaguely threatening situation. He startled easily. Noya had to be sure to help keep him steady, as best he could.

But he could only do so much.

They’d been walking for about half an hour – keeping out of sight of the main roads and big windows as much as possible, hardly speaking to each other – when Ryu suddenly tensed, his hand clenching around Noya’s so tightly that his knuckles cracked.

Noya looked back at him. He had stopped dead, and was staring back over his shoulder at something Noya could not see.

“Ryu,” he breathed. “What’s up?”

Ryu grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back. Noya collided with the alley wall and tried to step forward, but Ryu held him back with a hand on his chest.

“What is it?” Noya hissed, craning his neck.

Ryu held up a finger to silence him. Noya waited, heart pounding, lips pressed tight together. Ryu’s hand on his chest was tense and shivering. Noya barely breathed.

“There’s one of them following us,” Ryu croaked. “The alley we just came through.”

Noya’s heart skipped.

“What do we do?” he breathed.

“Run,” Ryu said. “On three. Into the intersection.”

His hand was freezing.

Noya carefully looked into the dark of the alley, and then the other way, toward the intersection. It was a big, open area; two four-lane roads crossed each other, with business blocks on all sides. Anyone – or anything – hiding out around it would be able to see them easily.

Noya gritted his teeth. These things were smart sometimes, and that pissed him off.

“That way, then?” he whispered.

“That way and don’t stop,” Ryu’s voice was barely audible. “On my count.”

Noya swallowed hard. He took Ryu’s hand from his chest and laced their fingers together.

Ryu squeezed his hand.

“One. Two.”

Noya took a deep breath.

“ _Run._ ”

The second the two of them moved, Noya heard the monster behind them start as well. It let out a bone-rattling screech that made Noya cry out as well. He clapped his free hand to his ear and did his best to keep his wits about him.

Ryu pulled him along into the intersection. Noya’s heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would break his ribs. He could hear more screams starting up around them – coming from all sides.

They were everywhere.

“Ryu?” he called out in a panic.

He was expecting them to run faster, but instead Ryu stopped completely. Noya almost crashed into his back.

Noya looked around them wildly, frantically searching for the creatures, for a potential way out. He found them at the same time; the things had managed to place themselves exactly between any gaps they could have used.

“Fuck,” Ryu breathed.

Noya pressed his back to Ryu’s. They let go of each other’s hands.

“Stay behind me,” Ryu said.

Noya didn’t need to say that there wasn’t really a ‘behind him’ in this situation.

The one that had chased them out here was starting towards Noya, and one more dropped out of the window of a building as he watched. They were five or six feet tall on all fours, with fangs almost as long as Noya’s forearm. He tried not to think what they might feel like if they got to him.

The things started walking around them, drawing closer little by little, beady little eyes locked onto them, tracking every move.

Really, it was awful how smart they were.

“How many on your side?” Noya murmured.

“Two,” Ryu replied. “You?”

“Two.”

Ryu tapped his hand.

“Can you handle them?” he breathed.

Noya bared his teeth and laughed a little.

“Course I can,” he snarled.

He felt Ryu laugh back.

“Okay,” he said. “Go.”

They moved at the same time. Noya sprang forward, hands clawed up and crackling with electricity. Both monsters readied themselves to pounce, letting out their awful screams again. Noya screamed back as he sprinted toward them.

He charged at them – and as soon as they leaped into the air, he threw himself to the ground, rolling several feet and then popping back up, grinning.

The creatures, momentarily confused, looked around for him. He rubbed his fingers together, throwing sparks from his fingertips.

_Rolling thunder._

He held his hands out in front of his body and braced himself.

This always had more kick than he thought it would.

A split second of concentration later, a vivid yellow light arced from Noya’s hands directly into the skulls of the two monsters. They howled and balked in pain and confusion, and Noya crowed triumphantly.

“Take _that_ , you stupid fuckers!” he bellowed as they tried to find their feet again, now with huge burns on their gnarled faces. He heard Ryu cackling from across the way, and chanced a glance over at him. He seemed to be holding his own just fine, swinging his two baseball bats around with great precision, staggering the creatures easily.

Just as he’d expected. Noya grinned and turned his attention back to his own battle.

They had nothing to worry about.

His two opponents were still disoriented, but they were collecting themselves again. He clapped his hands together, sending a crackle through the air that made his hair stand up. He drew them apart as the monsters charged forward, throwing lightning between his palms.

This time he let them get closer before he attacked. He waited as long as he could stand, adrenaline tingling in his fingertips – and as soon as it looked like they might get him, huge mouths open and screaming, he jumped.

He leaped as high as their shoulders and vaulted over them, giving them a nasty shock as he flew by. He did an unnecessary front flip before landing on the pavement behind them, and quickly turned around to ready himself again. One of the monsters’ legs had crumpled beneath it on its last attack, hobbling it for the moment. The other one wasn’t faring well, either; it looked like Noya’s last strike might have scrambled its brain a little.

Noya might have felt a little bad for the things if they didn’t keep actively trying to murder him.

He figured just a few more passes would do them in, assuming they didn’t run away first. They didn’t usually do that, but hey, it was a nice thought. He shot a few bolts at them from this distance, just to goad them. They yowled at him and turned around for another attack.

Noya was so focused on them that he didn’t notice what was coming up behind them – not until it was far too late to do anything to react.

The monster that sprinted towards him down the street wasn’t much taller than the ones he was already fighting, but it was much, much stronger.

It batted the other two monsters out of its way with one quick swipe of each forefoot – crushing their spindly limbs like they were made of glass – and then focused yellow eyes on Noya.

Noya’s heart stopped.

“RYU!” he screamed. “ROGUE!”

It was all he had time for before the thing was upon him.

It planted a clawed foot on his chest, knocking the wind out of him and pushing him to the ground. For a moment, the entirety of its crushing weight rested on him – and then it was gone, but he still couldn’t breathe.

He tried to roll over – to find Ryu, to help him – but he was pinned down by his own coughs. He tasted blood. There was a burning pain in his chest where the thing had stepped.

He couldn’t get up.

He could hear Ryu screaming – whether out of fear, determination, or pain, he couldn’t tell – and he had to get up, he had to help him – but he just _couldn’t move._

Noya heard the terrible roar of the rogue, so loud it shook the ground beneath him – and then suddenly Ryu was kneeling beside him, wide-eyed, open-mouthed.

“Yuu,” he croaked. “Oh, god, Yuu.”

Noya’s vision was going fuzzy at the edges. Ryu reached to cradle his cheek, and Noya noticed his palm was covered in blood. He clumsily took hold of Ryu’s wrist, tried to ask if he was hurt – but he couldn’t breathe, still, couldn’t speak.

He could hear the screeches of the smaller monsters as the rogue began to dispatch them. It would only be a matter of time before it turned around and came to finish them off.

Noya gripped Ryu’s arm even tighter and renewed his efforts to speak. He was terrified to discover that he could only wheeze.

He noticed that his own arm was also soaked in blood, all the way down the sleeve. He dimly wondered where it had all come from.

The rogue roared again. Ryu looked up at it, away from him, his face gray and drawn in horror.

“Run,” Noya finally managed, tears springing to his eyes. “Ryu.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Ryu croaked. “I’m never leaving you.”

Noya could hear the rogue turn around, could feel its heavy footfalls on the asphalt. He tried to push himself up, but his arms shook too much, he couldn’t lift himself.

“Please,” he choked. “Ryu.”

Ryu’s hand trembled on the handle of one of his bats. For a moment, he seemed about to fight, or about to run; to act in some way, to save himself. His instincts had to be screaming at him to do so, to run, to leave Noya and _run_.

But instead, Ryu moved himself closer to Noya. He whimpered and tried to shove Ryu off, scrabbling at his clothes with failing hands.

“I’m sorry,” Ryu breathed in his ear, sobs creeping in. “Yuu, I’m sorry… but I can’t leave anyone anymore.”

Then, quieter, tears plainly audible – “Don’t go without me, okay?”

Noya pressed his eyes shut. If he could breathe, he would be screaming, begging him to leave.

It was too late for Noya, but Ryu could still make it – he could still –

Ryu cried out and collapsed onto him. Ryu’s shoulders muffled Noya’s scream. The rogue was right on them now, had just slashed Ryu with its awful claws – Ryu was protecting him, shielding him with his own body –

“Sorry,” Ryu rasped, trying to push himself off of Noya’s damaged chest. Some of his blood dripped onto Noya’s face from a deep, deep gash in his shoulder.

Noya had only a split second to gape in mute terror before the rogue slammed Ryu down again. Everything went white for a moment, and then came back.

“Yuu,” Ryu’s voice was rough. “No matter… what happens…”

He was so quiet.

“No matter what, don’t you move,” he managed. “Stay under me… until it’s gone, okay?”

Noya was barely awake. The pain, Ryu’s blood, the things he was saying – too much, too much – he couldn’t think anymore – none of it could be real –

_Don’t leave me._

The rogue knocked Ryu down once more, and this time he couldn’t get back up. His head rested beside Noya’s, and he could hear his strangled coughing.

It subsided after a while. Noya couldn’t see anything.

“I love you,” Ryu’s voice was racked with agony. Noya felt soft pressure on his neck – a kiss. “I love you…”

“No,” he whimpered. “No...”

_Don’t go._

Everything was dark now. He tried to stay awake, but he didn’t know how to fight it.

“Ryu,” he tried, through tears, through fog, voice so weak he wasn’t even sure he was speaking. “Ryu…”

The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness completely was the monster’s deafening roar.

\- - -

Noya woke up with the taste of blood in his mouth.

He didn’t – or couldn’t – open his eyes right away. Everything hurt. It was slightly muted now, somehow, but his chest still gave a stabbing pain with every breath.

“Ryu,” he croaked, when he found that he could. “Ryu…”

He didn’t want to open his eyes. He didn’t want to see. For as long as he kept his eyes closed, Ryu could still be all right, for all he knew.

His mouth wobbled. He reached up, trying to touch him – but he found nothing. The pressure he felt had to be from the pain alone.

He would have to face it. Whatever state Ryu was in, Noya was going to have to find out eventually.

Cold dread filled him up.

He knew that if Ryu was even remotely able – even if he, himself, were badly injured – he would be at Noya’s side, doing whatever he could to help him. The fact that he wasn’t…

And the way he’d been, the pain he’d been in, when Noya had passed out…

Noya opened his eyes.

It took a moment for them to adjust. He blinked them a few times.

There was a ceiling over his head. He realized he was lying on something soft – a bed?

His heart sped up. He looked around him, or tried to – he was indeed lying on a bed, and the bed was surrounded by a gray curtain.

“Ryu?” he called out again, louder this time, trying to sit up and failing. “Ryu?”

He heard movement – footsteps outside the barrier of the curtain. Someone fumbled with the fabric, pulled it aside, and poked their head through.

That someone was not Ryu.

Noya had never seen them before in his life.

They had short gray hair and a mole below their left eye. They looked friendly enough, and they smiled at Noya quite pleasantly, but their presence did nothing to calm him down.

“Stay down, okay?” they said, when he tried to get up once more. “You’re going to be fine, but you can’t be moving around too much just yet.”

Noya ignored them and continued trying to sit up.

“Who are you?” he demanded. “Where’s Ryu?”

The person calmly walked over and gently pushed him down flat again.

“My name is Koushi Sugawara,” they said. “You can call me Suga.”

They straightened up again, hands on hips. “Your friend is going to be fine. They got hurt worse than you, but they’ll recover. They’re in the next bed over.”

“Let me see him,” Noya demanded. He could set aside his other questions for the moment; he had to see Ryu. Now.

Suga twisted their mouth. “He’s… pretty banged up,” they warned, but Noya shook his head dismissively.

“You said he’s gonna be okay, didn’t you?” he reminded Suga. “He was pretty banged up last time I saw him, too – just let me look.”

Suga hesitated – but apparently realized there was no point in arguing. They gave in.

“Okay,” they said, pulling aside Noya’s curtain and stepping through to Ryu’s.

Ryu was face-down on his bed, and his head was turned away from Noya. His entire back was wrapped in bandages, and Noya could see claw marks on the back of his head as well. Faintly, he could see his ribs move as he breathed.

Noya relaxed slightly. He turned his attention back to Suga, who was now standing at the foot of Ryu’s bed. Suga raised his eyebrows, prepared for the onslaught.

“Where are we?” Noya asked, more calmly.

Suga nodded.

“You’re in the med bay of the Karasuno camp,” they replied. “We saw you fighting those things and a couple of our guys came out to help.”

Noya’s mouth went dry.

“We don’t need help,” he said.

Suga scoffed. “You were dying,” they replied. “Both of you.

“Though I will admit,” they went on, “that you were doing a good job holding your own out there until the big one showed up. It took six of us to take care of that one.”

Suga walked over to Noya’s bed again and leaned against it, looking more serious.

“I was really interested in your particular method of fighting,” they said. “Lightning?”

“Look,” Noya said. “Let us go. Okay? We don’t need anything from you. We won’t bother you at all. We were just on our way out of the city when we got attacked. We’ll leave you alone –”

Suga’s eyes widened. “No, hey – hey, I’m actually interested!” they said. “I’ve never seen anyone with that ability before, and I’ve seen a lot.”

Noya stopped. They seemed honest, but…

“Do you… have an ability?” he asked.

Suga grinned. Instead of replying, they drew up their sleeves and reached for a knife on their belt.

Noya’s entire body tensed up – but when Suga drew the knife, it was only to cut their own arm.

Noya watched apprehensively as a drop of blood flowed down Suga’s skin. They licked their finger and wiped the blood away, and then held out their arm for Noya to inspect.

Noya squinted, looking for the inch-long cut he’d seen Suga put there, but couldn’t find it. He looked up at them, mouth slightly open.

Suga was smiling. They put the knife away and rolled their sleeves back down.

“Healing blood,” they said. “It’s why you two are still alive.”

Noya shivered.

“You said you’re a camp,” he said. “Does everyone here…”

“Most everyone,” Suga replied. “There’s one that doesn’t, as far as we can tell.”

They grinned. “We have to stick together, you know? No place for us anywhere else.”

Noya knew all too well how people with abilities could be treated by those who didn’t have them. The way people had looked at him in the compound, right after he’d discovered his…

“So,” Suga went on. “You and your friend – I’m assuming you both have some kind of ability – you’re welcome to stay here, if you need to. We have plenty of resources, plenty of space. If you’re willing to help out, you can stay as long as you like.”

Noya looked over at Ryu again.

Settling down had never been their style, but if it could save them from having this happen again…

“I’ll wait till he wakes up,” Noya finally decided, looking back to Suga.

Suga nodded. “I’ll leave you for now,” they said. “Get some rest. You need it.”

Noya relaxed, finally. He faced Ryu and watched him sleep, listened to his quiet breathing. Suga left the room quietly, leaving the curtains open.

Ryu was alive. Noya lay there for a long time, just taking him in.

They’d survived again.

**Author's Note:**

> HEY THERE EVERYBODYYY
> 
> So yes, this is the first chapter of Halo. It's going to be a huge project if I do it right, and so there won't be more for a while. I still kind of have to plan out where it's gonna go. I know where it'll end up but it's getting there that's the issue.
> 
> You can look for updates on my blog, at i-homeostasis.tumblr.com/tagged/halo-updates. I have a bunch more fics in the works at the same time as this one, and I'm in school again, so the going will be slow, but hopefully will not stop.
> 
> I probably have a lot more to say but I can't think of it right now haha. I hope you enjoyed and maybe will stick around for more ~


End file.
